Still Bleeding
by Behind These Mako Eyes
Summary: DesShaun. Their pride and joy also has her own bouts with the bleeding effect. Drabble-y/fluff fic.
1. Chapter 1

The screaming child in the other room woke Rebecca first, she groaned unhappily as she crawled out of bed to tend to the toddler. It was only four-twenty-two in the morning and little Lyric needed something.

Shaun and Desmond were too busy snoring away in their comfy nest of blankets and pillows to tend to their child. Rebecca had gotten over the shock easily of Desmond's ability to bear children, passing it off as something funky that Abstergo had put in his food, something that had to do with Baby; or maybe being exposed to the Apple...well, as his ancestors.

She picked up the crying child and snuggled her, still in thought. Ezio had slept with Leonardo, but would never let the man cum inside him. Altair was too-prideful a man to let himself be topped - by Malik, even. Rebecca sighed and looked at Lyric.

"Wassa matter, baby girl?" She asked tiredly, rubbing her small back gently.

"Momma," she whimpered, "want Momma." Rebecca nodded and walked over to the boys' room and knocked. An exasperated groan could be heard and Shaun came to the door.

"Rebecca, it's four-thirty in the sodding morning," he took a breath to insult her, but then saw Lyric reaching for him, "thanks, mate." He took the toddler with a soft coo and an appreciative, but dismissive look to Becks.

He closed the door behind him and moved over to Desmond, letting the one year-old jump onto him. Desmond gave her a smile and kissed her cheek.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Alty," she said, snuggling into his arms and reaching around like she typically did to play with the short hair at the back of Desmond's neck. "Mad."

"Alty?" Shaun asked quietly, sitting beside the two people he loved the most. "Lyric, dear, do you mean Altair?"

"Alty," she said succinctly, burying her face into Desmond's shoulder. The ex-bartender looked at him, fear written along his features.

"Try to get some sleep, okay?" Desmond murmured soothingly. He stroked her black hair away gently, comforting her until she fell asleep peacefully in his arms.

"She saw Altair?" Shaun hissed quietly, "Altair Ibn La-fucking-Ahad has been in the same room as my little nit?"

"Maybe she was just dreaming," Desmond supplied quickly, "she's seen you draw him and we talk an awful lot about him."

"Des," he sighed, "what if it's because you suffered from the Bleeding Effect when you were pregnant?"

A sigh and then silence befell the couple.

"Look, Des," he started, "we'll give this another week and if she sees him again, then we'll start tests or something."

The assassin only pressed a gentle kiss to Lyric's sleeping head and let himself snuggle into Shaun. The redhead smiled lightly, kissing Desmond's scarred lips, letting his arms wrap around him gently.

"I love you, Shaun."

"I love you too, you Wanker."

Shaun chuckled as Desmond punched his shoulder.

* * *

><p>The blaring beeps of Shaun's alarmclock easily woke him, but his little family continued to snore blissfully. He gave a sigh and shook Desmond lightly, extracting Lyric from his arms as he did so. The small girl whimpered in protest, grabbing at the soft material of Shaun's nightshirt.<p>

"Des, get up," he ordered, pulling the sheets off of the tanned man. Said man gave his own irritable groan of protest at the chill of the air. "Get up, you tit!"

"Not in front of her, Shaun," Desmond warned through the pillow, slowly dragging himself up. He got to his feet and shuffled into the kitchen, an awake-Shaun and dozing Lyric in tow. He set out Shaun's tea, began brewing coffee and took his griping child from the historian.

"Might wanna change her soon, love."

Desmond ignored him with a question to Lyric, "what do you wanna eat?"

"Ceewios," she replied, hands going to play with his hair, "cheewios." she reiterated.

"Sounds good," Desmond sat her down in her high chair, reaching into the yellow box to grab a handful of Sawdust Cheerios to dump it out on her tray. Sawdust Cheerios were the dull, dusty ones without any form of sweetener. Desmond had learned once she switched to solid foods that she preferred to have something bland and tasteless. She ate these Cheerios without milk and would only take sips of soy milk when she was thirsty.

The switch of milk was odd as well, Desmond produced it on his own miraculously. She went from man-milk to soy milk due to either the taste or the richness in whole milk. Lyric's picky little tongue would have nothing but organics and plain foods. She hated sweets, a trait he decided she picked up from Shaun, his own sweet tooth had become notorious.

"Thanks for setting out the tea, mate."

"Sure thing," Desmond replied, begining to mix his instant breakfast.

When Lyric was born, he didn't have the time to sit down and make himself to eat because it'd be cold or soggy after he'd taken care of her own needs. Lucy began to notice his dramatic decrease in weight(mostly the baby fat falling off easily) and suggested he atleast substituted the meals with the drink. She went out and bought the three classic flavors: chocolate, vanilla and strawberry and he took to the little powdery packets easily.

Shaun sat down at the table near the black-haired little girl and commented on her arrangement of Cheerios, noting that it looked like Big Ben. This initiated a long lesson about the facts of Great Britain and it's glorious history.

"Don't forget the messed up teeth, Shaun."

"Excuse me?"

"Bad teef!" Lyric agreed, throwing a Cheerio at Desmond. Shaun scowled at his boyfriend unhappily.

"Don't teach her that, you idiot!" He reprimanded, "the only Brit I've seen with bad teeth is my sister, Eliza! That stupid nit wouldn't know a toothbrush from a bowlingpin!"

Desmond laughed at that, finishing the process of stirring his chocolate start of the day to start drinking it down. Rebecca and Lucy were the next two to join breakfast, making poptarts and a bowl of cereal. Lucy made sure to take a banana as well to show some healthy-food-choice to Lyric.

"So, she was screaming at four in the morning," Lucy sighed pointedly, "how did you guys sleep through it?"

"It comes with the parenting thing," Desmond explained, "we're so used to it, we know what her cries mean and she usually doesn't cry at night, so we've been sleeping pretty deeply."

"Those first months were God awful," Shaun groaned, "cholic and she was just a pain in the arse."

The four adults reminisqued about those five miserable months of screaming, crying, massive shitting, constant bottles, constant outfit changes. Desmond was the first to think about the fun times they had either way, when she would stop crying to snuggle into him or when he would do some face or dance to get her to laugh instead of scream.

"Well," Desmond broke the silence, "she's a good girl, now."

"My little nits an angel," Shaun said affectionately, lifting her up when she finished eating. "And she'd better behave when Momma's in the Animus."

The Americans surrounding the table began to shuffle into the workroom.

"Be good for Daddy," Desmond said, kissing her cheek gently, "Mommy loves you."

"Love," she replied like usual, smiling as she played with the prickly hair on the back of Shaun's head. Shaun leaned to kiss Desmond before the man went to the animus.

"See you when you're out, love."

Desmond entered the Animus.


	2. Chapter 2

Desmond slowly sat up in the Animus chair, blinking a few times to clear away Ezio's world and to focus on his own. He inhaled deeply, getting to his feet.

"Hey there, Mommy," Rebecca teased, "don't move too fast."

"I'm alright," he replied, "did she behave?" He looked around the workroom to find Lyric, seeing her snuggled up to her bear in Shaun's lap.

"We'll talk about what happened at dinner," Lucy supplied, "Shaun's still flustered about it."

"Flustered is one word for it," the Brit snapped at her. "I suppose you wouldn't understand, seeing as you aren't a parent."

"Calm yourself, limey." Rebecca warned lightly.

The American made his way over to them and lifted Lyric into his arms when she reached for him, placing a light kiss on her forehead. She smiled happily at him, her small hand going to play with his hair as she wormed closer.

"I guess we'll talk at dinner," he said, looking at Shaun's computer screen. "Why don't we play hide and seek in the warehouse?" Lyric responded excitedly, wriggling to get out of his arms.

"Wanna play," she asserted quickly, "play!"

"Would either of you care to join?" Shaun offered the two women at their desks, eliciting a five-man-hide-and-seek-match and then a three-man-nerf-war after Desmond sat out to gather drinks for everyone(initially for Lyric).

A shadow came over Lyric and she looked up, her honey-colored eyes meeting a sharp silver. She smiled as Altair knelt down beside her.

"You are but an infant," he said, "why would your mother leave you alone?" He sat down beside the little girl.

"Alty," she said with a smile, toddling over to him and begining to play with the familiar sash.

"Sameera," Altair smiled at her, invisioning his own little girl and not the one before him, "I cannot believe Maria has left you here."

A haze spread over the little girl, "MalMal?" she asked, snuggling up to Altair. Sameera's memories began leaking into her. She wanted to pester her uncle Malik now.

"He is not here," he answered, "I sent him to Acre to check on our brothers."

"Isssss?" She could not sound out her older brother's name.

"Ishmael," he paused, "I do not know where he is. Perhaps your mother does."

Altair's figure vanished. Lyric/Sameera began to sob almost instantly when he'd left her sight. She sat down on the warehouse floor and began to have a tantrum about him leaving her.

All adults came racing over to the screaming toddler, Shaun was the first to lift her up.

"Lyric, darling, what ever is the matter?" He cooed as he bounced her in his arms. She stopped her crying only minutes after being picked up and looked up at Shaun with her warm amber eyes.

"Alty," she replied, snuggling into her father, "gone."

The British man witheld his anger and brought her into the kitchen to eat. The four adults sat and ate quietly for the first portion of their meal. Desmond had prepared tunafish sandwiches and was currently helping Lyric eat little bits of her own sandwich.

She was rather picky about it, the prickling taste of Miracle Whip on her tongue was not something she typically agreed with. The toddler ate anyways, then went for her chex mix that Desmond placed on the tray. She would only eat the original brand and hated the pretzels and those little white cracker things. Lyric ate what she hated first to enjoy the corn and wheat chex after.

She'd picked that up from Shaun.

"So, what happened while I was in the Animus?" Desmond asked, taking a bite of his own dinner while his daughter was busy with her food.

"Well, I was right," Shaun started, "she's dealing with the Bleeding Effect, Desmond. She's been seeing Altair Ibn La-bloody-Ahad."

"How many times has this happened?"

"This would be the third time we've caught it happening," Lucy said, going to slice up some cheese for Lyric to eat as well. She preferred to eat only cheddar cheese - another thing she'd inherited from Shaun.

The little girl smiled at Lucy, reaching up to be given a small slice, her chex mix long forgotton. The group leader only smiled in return and continued to feed her the strips of orange dairy.

"Is he hurting her?"

"No, I don't think so," Shaun replied, "but she still cries about something. I'll do some more research on him. Maybe you could hop into the Animus and we'll upload Altair's file for you to study."

"What about Ezio?"

"That bloody horndog isn't interfering with her, is he?" Shaun snapped at the engineer, "I'm only focusing on what's bothering her now. If Ezio comes into play, I'll do something about that."

They all gave a collective sigh, deciding to end dinner and start their relaxing period.

* * *

><p>"Look at you," Desmond cooed as Lyric tried to run at him, shrieking the way all small children did. He caught her and tossed her up into the air, making her scream with happiness. Once she was safely in his arms, she snuggled into him, her small hands instantly going to play with Desmond's hair.<p>

"She's getting so big," Shaun commented, "she'll be two in a few months, you know."

"We'll have to do something for her birthday," Desmond replied, "it'd be nice to give her a party, where she'll open some presents and do some fun stuff."

"We'll see what we can do." Shaun said earnestly, smiling as Lyric came up to him and crawled into his lap with her bear.

"Stowy," she ordered with a smile, settling happily with those puppy-dog eyes she'd learned directly from Desmond. The historian gave a laugh and got up to venture over to his shelf.

"Jack and the Beanstalk," he offered, "or your mum can tell you the one about Rumpelstilkskin."

"Rummo!" She answered and was again taken into Desmond's hold. The American kissed her cheek.

"I'll tell you the story of Rumpelstiltskin after you take a bath," he compromised, gaining a frown from her. He was sure it bled over from Altair, but she completely despised water in any way, shape, or form unless it was presented in her yellow sippy-cup.

"Bath or no story," Shaun said as he took the book from it's place on the shelf. "And let's not repeat the episode with Bear like last week, alright, dear?"

"What happened last week?"

"She decided to bring Bear into the bath with her and it got destroyed in the dryer and I had to fix the damned thing." Shaun groaned, "she would not have any other bear."

"It's because this one was her first one," Desmond defended, "it was familiar before she was even born, don't try to take it away."

"She'll stop wanting it when she turns nine or ten, possibly eleven."

"Yeah, but we'll keep it anyway."

"Bear," Lyric said, understanding that her most-treasured item was being talked about, "mine."

"We know, dear," Shaun said, "I'll put him in mum and dad's room and you can play with him after bath time and story time, alright?"

Lyric reluctantly handed over the furry brown animal, wrapping her arms around Desmond's neck as she was carried to that tub she hated oh-so-much.


End file.
